Femtosecond filamentation in transparent media

Modern laser sources nowadays deliver ultrashort light pulses reaching few cycles in duration and peak powers exceeding several terawatt (TW). When such pulses propagate through optically transparent media, they first self-focus in space and grow in intensity, until they generate a tenuous plasma by photo-ionization. For free electron densities and beam intensities below their breakdown limits, these pulses evolve as self-guided objects, resulting from successive equilibria between the Kerr focusing process, the chromatic dispersion of the medium and the defocusing action of the electron plasma. Discovered one decade ago, this self-channeling mechanism reveals a new physics, widely extending the frontiers of nonlinear optics. Implications include long-distance propagation of TW beams in the atmosphere, supercontinuum emission, pulse shortening as well as high-order harmonic generation. This review presents the landmarks of the 10-odd-year progress in this field. Particular emphasis is laid on the theoretical modeling of the propagation equations, whose physical ingredients are discussed from numerical simulations. The dynamics of single filaments created over laboratory scales in various materials such as noble gases, liquids and dielectrics reveal new perspectives in pulse shortening techniques. Far-field spectra provide promising diagnostics. Attention is also paid to the multifilamentation instability of broad beams, breaking up the energy distribution into small-scale cells along the optical path. The robustness of the resulting filaments in adverse weathers, their large conical emission exploited for multipollutant remote sensing, nonlinear spectroscopy and the possibility of guiding electric discharges in air are finally addressed on the basis of experimental results.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/70/10/R03/pdf

Ultrashort filaments of light in weakly ionized, optically transparent media

Reliable, efficient electrically pumped silicon-based lasers would enable full integration of photonic and electronic circuits, but have previously only been realized by wafer bonding. Here, we demonstrate continuous-wave InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers directly grown on silicon substrates with a low threshold current density of 62.5 A cm–2, a room-temperature output power exceeding 105 mW and operation up to 120 °C. Over 3,100 h of continuous-wave operating data have been collected, giving an extrapolated mean time to failure of over 100,158 h. The realization of high-performance quantum dot lasers on silicon is due to the achievement of a low density of threading dislocations on the order of 105 cm−2 in the III–V epilayers by combining a nucleation layer and dislocation filter layers with in situ thermal annealing. These results are a major advance towards reliable and cost-effective silicon-based photonic–electronic integration.

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Electrically pumped continuous-wave III–V quantum dot lasers on silicon

The state of the art of investigations on filamentation of a high-power femtosecond laser radiation in transparent media is reviewed. The physical picture of this phenomenon is presented and its relation to the fundamental concepts of nonlinear optics and practical applications is demonstrated. Experimental and theoretical methods are briefly considered and laser radiation parameters in the case of filamentation are given. The review can be of interest both for specialists and researches wanting to become familiar with a new, rapidly developing direction in laser physics.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1070/QE2009v039n03ABEH013916/pdf

Filamentation of high-power femtosecond laser radiation

Transition-metal-doped ZnO nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic activity under UV light.

Morphology, structure and magnetic properties of single-crystal Mn3O4 nanorods

Filamentation formed by self-focusing of intense laser pulses propagating in air is investigated. It is found that the position of filamentation can be controlled continuously by changing the laser power and divergence angle of the laser beam. An analytical model for the process is given.

Control of filamentation induced by femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air

The effective activation energy Ue(T,H) in epitaxial GdBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films

The momentum transfer and the specific impulse of the ablative laser propulsion of nanosecond laser irradiation on copper, lead, aluminum and graphite targets are investigated. The effects of the ambient pressure and laser focal spot sizes on the target momentum are measured. The results show that the target momentum strongly relates to the ambient pressure and target property. The highest target momentum about 2.28 g center dot cm/s is obtained on lead targets under 1 atmospheric pressure. With the increase of the focal spot sizes, the specific impulse decreases. The highest specific impulse in vacuum is about 950 s on copper targets.

Characteristic investigation of ablative laser propulsion driven by nanosecond laser pulses

Based on InAs/GaAs quantum dots [QDs], a high-power and broadband superluminescent diode [SLD] is achieved by monolithically integrating a conventional SLD with a semiconductor optical amplifier. The two-section QD-SLD device exhibits a high output power above 500 mW with a broad emission spectrum of 86 nm. By properly controlling the current injection in the two sections of the QD-SLD device, the output power of the SLD can be tuned over a wide range from 200 to 500 mW while preserving a broad emission spectrum based on the balance between the ground state emission and the first excited state emission of QDs. The gain process of the two-section QD-SLD with different pumping levels in the two sections is investigated.

/pdf/a-high-performance-quantum-dot-superluminescent-diode-with-a-3hskxt2xy1.pdf

Z. H. Wang

Papers

Morphology, structure and magnetic properties of single-crystal Mn3O4 nanorods

Control of filamentation induced by femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air

The effective activation energy Ue(T,H) in epitaxial GdBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films

Characteristic investigation of ablative laser propulsion driven by nanosecond laser pulses

A high-performance quantum dot superluminescent diode with a two-section structure